Maggie: A Journey of Love, Loss and Survival by Vicki Tapia

Mt. Clemens, Michigan, 1887. Seventeen and headstrong, with marriage on her mind, Maggie is sure she has found her one true love. But when she collides head-on with betrayal, overwhelming loss and ill-treatment, her life unravels. In a time when women had few rights, Maggie rises above adversity through rare determination and grit, becoming an independent woman ahead of her time. Yet before she can truly find peace, one heartbreaking, life-altering decision remains. Inspired by her great-grandmother's life, the author weaves a timeless story of survival and courage set against the backdrop of Mt. Clemens, Michigan and the prairies of eastern Montana at the turn of the twentieth century.

Ashes by Sharon Gloger Friedman

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A Jewish Family’s Epic of Hope, Tragedy, and Survival Easter Sunday, 1903 ushered in three days of government-sanctioned brutality on the Jews of Kishinev, Russia. In the aftermath of slaughter, rape, and destruction, Meyer and Sadie Raisky escape to New York City with their thirteen-year-old daughter, Miriam. Their home and business gone, reeling from devastating personal tragedy, the Raiskys cling to the promise of a better life in America. But upon arriving in New York City, Miriam and her parents quickly learn that promises are easily broken in the tenements of the Lower East Side. When circumstances force Miriam to abandon the schooling she loves to help support her family, she goes to work at the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, joining other immigrant girls who work long hours for low wages in shocking conditions. Against the backdrop of emerging workers’ rights and women’s rights, Miriam’s social conscience and young womanhood both blossom when she falls in love with a union organizer. Meticulously researched and rich with beautifully drawn characters that bring 20th-century New York City to life, Ashes is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and a haunting elegy to the young women whose suffering inspired changes to the working conditions in the garment industry.

I am Mrs. Jesse James by Pat Wahler

She captured his heart, but at what price? The long, bloody Civil War is finally at an end when Zee Mimms, the daughter of a Missouri preacher, is tasked with nursing her cousin, Jesse James, back to health after he suffers a near-fatal wound. During Jesse's long convalescence, the couple falls in love, but Jesse's resentment against the Federals runs deep. He has scores to settle. For him, the war will never be over. Zee is torn between deferring to her parents' wishes and marrying for security or marrying for love and accepting the hard realities of life with an outlaw--living under an assumed name and forever on the run. For her, the choice she makes means the war is only beginning. Discover why readers describe this richly imagined story of the woman who wed Jesse James as powerful, compelling, and emotional.

Girl with a Gun: An Annie Oakley Mystery by Kari Bovée

Fifteen-year-old Annie Oakley is the sole supporter of her widowed mother and two siblings. An expert markswoman and independent spirit, she hunts game to sell to the local mercantile to make ends meet instead of accepting a marriage proposal that could solve all her problems. After a stunning performance in a shooting contest against the handsome and famous sharpshooter Frank Butler, Annie is offered a position in the renowned Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Finally, she has a chance to save the nearly foreclosed family farm and make her dreams come true. But then her Indian assistant is found dead in her tent, and Annie is dubious when the local coroner claims the death was due to natural causes. When another innocent is murdered, Annie begins to fear the deaths are related to her. And to make matters worse, her prized horse, Buck, a major part of her act, is stolen. Annie soon discovers that the solution to her problems lies buried in a padlocked Civil War trunk belonging to the show’s manager, Derence LeFleur. And so, with the help of a sassy, blue-blooded reporter, Annie sets out to find her horse, solve the murders, and clear her name.

Courage and Complicity by Claudette Languedoc

In August 1947, Mary Brock boarded a train in Toronto. She was headed for the wilds of Northwestern Ontario and a teaching job at an Indian Residential School. Her family was horrified. At the end of her first day of teaching, Mary was horrified too. This was not the exciting adventure she had imagined. But Mary wasn't one to give up. Buoyed by her ideals and her pragmatism, she kept showing up.She lasted the academic year. When she boarded the train for home she knew she had failed—in every way that mattered.The ideals she had come with had shattered on her classroom floor, and her heart lay buried behind a small log cabin in the woods.Sixty years later, two unexpected gifts forced her to take a second look back and a more hopeful look forward. Maybe her ideals weren't so naive after all.

The Paris Photo by Jane S Gabin

The Paris Photo compassionately conveys the story of American soldier Ben Gordon and his relationship with a young mother and her son just after the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. Despite the strength of this relationship during the war, Ben's eventual return to America separates them. Decades later, Ben's daughter stitches the relationship back together when she discovers a photograph of her late father with an unknown woman and boy. Eager to uncover more of her father's past, she travels to Paris to learn about the people in the photograph. The Paris Photo lifts characters out of the pages of a history book, richly depicting the human emotion that pervades our memories. The Paris Photo will appeal to lovers of historical fiction, particularly those with an interest in WWII. Jane S. Gabin creates a vivid picture of life in Paris during the dark days of the Nazi occupation, as well as a depiction of the contemporary city that still carries scars from the war. Interweaving mystery, romance, and historical research, The Paris Photo demonstrates how the traumas of wartime loss persist into the present.

Go Down the Mountain by Meredith Battle

Their government painted them as ignorant hillbillies, then took their land. Now read the story of these Virginia mountain families, for the first time as historical fiction. Bee Livingston is a nervy, teenage beauty whose beloved father's sudden death in a snake charming accident has left her alone with her abusive mother. Her one salvation is Miles, the big-city photographer who promises escape and a life full of the adventure she craves. But when Bee is caught in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with a government man who takes her family's land and won't stop until he claims her too, it may be Torch, the boy she grew up with on the mountain, who becomes the man she needs. Based on the true story of the hundreds of families who were forced from their Blue Ridge Mountain homes to make way for Shenandoah National Park in the 1930s, Go Down the Mountain is a tale of dispossession, coming of age, and love.